My children actually think that Halloween is the last Sunday in October. We live in a town that always trick-or-treats on the Sunday before Halloween...it's probably a law or something brilliant like that. Now that I've been in the big world of politics for 6 whole months (school board, if you don't know) I figure somebody proposed this years ago to benefit their own child, nobody has ever looked at the 'why' since, and it just stays this way and nobody can tell you why...but I digress.
Here are my top ten reasons for loving trick-or-treating:
1) Digging through the costume bin. This provides hours and hours of entertainment. Every year when we dig it (or them) out, we find something that got shoved in it while the kids were 'cleaning up' the year before. Our best one was a library book that was wrapped in a Ninja costume. They even refunded my lost book fee!
2) The great equalizer...I love anything that just puts us all at the same level. Every kid has a blast, and gets the same treats.
3) My niece, Lou, gets this one. One year she came to t-o-t with us, and screamed her head off the whole hour before-hand. None of us could figure it out. She was the cutest looking little Tinkerbell ever, the sound...notsomuch. After looking around, I had a brief inspired moment, and asked if she wanted to be Spiderman instead. (We had both the black version and blue and red versions available, thank you very much.) I nailed it!...no wimpy fairy costume for her...she was going out with 4 male cousins and her brother, and she did NOT want to be a fairy...she wanted to be a superhero.
4) The family that works for Mars. We have received the greatest candy from that house.
5) The great candy trade afterwards. What can I say? If I could still be in there trading a Kit Kat for a Reeses...I would be all over it! (Now I just take it, but the thrill is gone)
6) The moment when all the little kids realize what's going on. It's fantastic when it dawns on them if they ring people's doorbells and say blah-blah-blah, they get candy. Suddenly they are sprinting up driveways, and all bad attitudes vanish.
7) Cool people who like decorating their houses. I am not one, but I appreciate the art form.
8) Teenage mooses who will not let go of trick-or-treating. This used to annoy me, but now that I have some (ok, SIX) it cracks me up. It's one of the last little kid things they cling to. My 17 year old spend hours sewing bunny ears last night.
9) Smarties. Nuff said.
10) Last, and absolutely not least, is that fact that there are mountains of chocolate in my house for at least a week. Absolutely limitless!
11) Wait. I have another one. Half price candy the next day...I definitely do the retail rounds. So what if your Christmas stocking is full of black and orange skittle packs? They taste the same!
12) Hang on...one more...the left over candy at your own house. Fantastic!
Enjoy! I have to go and dye Grandpa Ninja's hair!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Crawling Out From Under the Rock
I've been getting pounded with sad news lately. Yesterday, yet another friend told me she is very ill, there is no cure, and it's going to get ugly. (that's a paraphrase!) She also said 'I guess I just haven't done enough things right in my life'.
I didn't give her a 'Jesus will fix it' line, and I'm not going to give you one. I'll tell you what it has taken me 7 1/2 years to learn. God isn't going to fix it. He can, but He doesn't owe you diddly crap, and He doesn't owe me diddly crap. It's not how it works.
He didn't cause it, either. Could He have intervened? Yep. Can He still? Yep. Does it have anything to do with how hard you pray, how good you are, or how much you give? Nope. He's God; we're not; that's it.
I spent a few years absolutely livid over this. God just patiently sat with me in my hissy fit, silent as can be. He wasn't mad at me, either. I believe He was angry...with all the horrible things that had happened...but not with me. But He promised not to break a bruised reed, and He didn't. (Isaiah 42:3) Have you ever tried to break a reed off? Not a dried up one that snaps, but a really healthy one? They're awful. You just twist them and turn them and strip off a few layers and yank and cuss them out and then twist again, until all the juice is running out the sides but the darn thing just stays attached. It's maddening! But that's the reed that God's not going to break, or allow anyone else to. It's not something that's been neatly knocked over by a strong wind. It's a mauled up mess that would, frankly, be better off mowed or cut off or something. But it just hangs on.
I would say during that long period of my life, God would dump water on me now and then so I couldn't die. Sometimes He'd send someone else to do it, but years later I think I just see Him sitting there with a misting bottle, squirting me the tiny amounts I could take. Sometimes I screamed and shook it all off, but sometimes there was no fight, and I'd just let it soak in because I couldn't do anything else.
At some point I think my friends and family took a stick and propped me up. Stupid stick. I didn't want to get up. A better plan was that I turned into some type of creeping vine that grew up the side of a rock. I could throw out a tendril here and there, but mostly stay under the rock. If someone steps on me, it rubs off all my leaves, but it doesn't hurt the rock, so I can creep up again when I feel safe. Which isn't as often as you might think.
So, without insulting your intelligence, let me tell you that God's the rock. He's staying, He's protecting, but we do have to crawl out from under Him from time to time. Just remember He doesn't have the same kind of timeline people do. He sees the heart, He knows the pain, and He's very patient and protective. I personally hope He hurls Himself at a few people's windshields...or skulls, but I suspect it's not the plan.
If you have experienced this life-altering type of pain... and you're waiting to feel normal again...Um, goodluckwiththat. Sorry. I'll never be the person I was before. I'm still me...I can still 'present as normal' but truly truly, I don't miss that person. She was ignorant and arrogant...fearless, yes, but probably to the point of stupidity.
When I learned how to see in the dark after being under the rock for so long, I realized there is a huge community of people down there. Some I'd never seen before. Some I saw every day, I just didn't get it that they were only on the top side for a visit. We kind of wink at each other now...and promise to meet under the rock later.
If you're under the rock; Hey. How's it going?
If you never have been, consider shutting up. Work at not bruising more reeds.
I didn't give her a 'Jesus will fix it' line, and I'm not going to give you one. I'll tell you what it has taken me 7 1/2 years to learn. God isn't going to fix it. He can, but He doesn't owe you diddly crap, and He doesn't owe me diddly crap. It's not how it works.
He didn't cause it, either. Could He have intervened? Yep. Can He still? Yep. Does it have anything to do with how hard you pray, how good you are, or how much you give? Nope. He's God; we're not; that's it.
I spent a few years absolutely livid over this. God just patiently sat with me in my hissy fit, silent as can be. He wasn't mad at me, either. I believe He was angry...with all the horrible things that had happened...but not with me. But He promised not to break a bruised reed, and He didn't. (Isaiah 42:3) Have you ever tried to break a reed off? Not a dried up one that snaps, but a really healthy one? They're awful. You just twist them and turn them and strip off a few layers and yank and cuss them out and then twist again, until all the juice is running out the sides but the darn thing just stays attached. It's maddening! But that's the reed that God's not going to break, or allow anyone else to. It's not something that's been neatly knocked over by a strong wind. It's a mauled up mess that would, frankly, be better off mowed or cut off or something. But it just hangs on.
I would say during that long period of my life, God would dump water on me now and then so I couldn't die. Sometimes He'd send someone else to do it, but years later I think I just see Him sitting there with a misting bottle, squirting me the tiny amounts I could take. Sometimes I screamed and shook it all off, but sometimes there was no fight, and I'd just let it soak in because I couldn't do anything else.
At some point I think my friends and family took a stick and propped me up. Stupid stick. I didn't want to get up. A better plan was that I turned into some type of creeping vine that grew up the side of a rock. I could throw out a tendril here and there, but mostly stay under the rock. If someone steps on me, it rubs off all my leaves, but it doesn't hurt the rock, so I can creep up again when I feel safe. Which isn't as often as you might think.
So, without insulting your intelligence, let me tell you that God's the rock. He's staying, He's protecting, but we do have to crawl out from under Him from time to time. Just remember He doesn't have the same kind of timeline people do. He sees the heart, He knows the pain, and He's very patient and protective. I personally hope He hurls Himself at a few people's windshields...or skulls, but I suspect it's not the plan.
If you have experienced this life-altering type of pain... and you're waiting to feel normal again...Um, goodluckwiththat. Sorry. I'll never be the person I was before. I'm still me...I can still 'present as normal' but truly truly, I don't miss that person. She was ignorant and arrogant...fearless, yes, but probably to the point of stupidity.
When I learned how to see in the dark after being under the rock for so long, I realized there is a huge community of people down there. Some I'd never seen before. Some I saw every day, I just didn't get it that they were only on the top side for a visit. We kind of wink at each other now...and promise to meet under the rock later.
If you're under the rock; Hey. How's it going?
If you never have been, consider shutting up. Work at not bruising more reeds.
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